The present invention relates to conveyor systems for flat sheets of rigid material, and, more particularly, to such systems in which the sheets are transferred from one conveyor to a second conveyor positioned at right angles thereto.
The present invention is useable in the manufacture of sugar wafer sandwiches, which consist of alternate layers of baked porous wafers and cream filling.
The wafers are baked in large sheets and these sheets are coated on one side with cream filling and are stacked one upon another with an uncoated sheet positioned on top. This large sandwich is then cut longitudinally and transversely into the individual wafer sandwiches, a number of which are wrapped together to form a retain package.
In a high production plant, the coating, stacking and cutting operations can be accomplished at a much higher rate than the baking of the wafers, therefore, it is desirable that the output of a number of wafer ovens be consolidated in an uninterrupted flow on a single fast moving conveyor leading to the coating, stacking and cutting equipment.
The width of the wafer sheet does not effect the baking time, therefore, it is also desirable that oversized sheets be baked and that these sheets be divided to further increase the rate of wafer sheet production.